1. Field of the Invention
The present invention involves a safety cap and container which may be used for chemicals, medicine such as pills, capsules, caplets and the like and for other materials which require safety caps. More specifically, the present invention involves a convertible child-resistant or childproof cap and container which may be converted to a non-childproof cap and container. Thus, as used herein a child-proof cap and container is one which is designed to slow down or discourage or prevent a child from opening the bottle or container to which the cap is attached. The term "child-resistant" is also used interchangeably with childproof. The cap and container of the present invention may be either child-resistant or non-child-resistant depending upon the particular desires of the user, and, in many instances, may be predetermined and preset even before the container reaches the user, e.g. as in the case of prescription medicine wherein the pharmacist may actually render the cap and bottle permanently childproof or permanently non-childproof.
2. Prior Art Statement
For many years now, chemical and medicine container manufacturers, including prescription drug container manufacturers and over the counter labeled medicine container manufacturers have sought to create various cap configurations which would allow the ultimate users to have childproof or child-resistant caps. The most popular type of child-resistant caps are those which involve two cap systems, that is, arrangements involving one cap being located within the second cap, an outer cap being freely rotatable about an inner cap, with the inner cap having threads for the bottle, whereby the outer and inner cap become engaged by pressure from the user such as squeezing the side or pressing the top. In fact, the predominant childproof cap in the United States is one which involves downward pressure on an outer cap so as to engage ratchet type segments on the inside of the outer cap top and the outside of the inner cap top so that they rotate together so as to effect opening of the bottle. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,961 to Curry et al is typical of the child-resistant closures requiring pressure from the user to open.
Other prior art of the past three decades show safety caps or closures which involve realignment of sliders or buttons so as to lock an outer cap into an inner cap using pressure. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,803, issued to Pasquariello; U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,247 issued to Rigor and U.S. Pat. No. 3,578,192 issued to Sonne, all show some type of slider button which has an engage-disengage arrangement as mentioned. The problem arises, however, when children understand how to simply push the button and the container is no longer childproof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,277 issued to B. K. Milbourne on June 23, 1964 is directed to a unique safety closure system involving an outer cap and an inner cap whereby the two caps are typically not engaged so the child can not open the container but by removal and reinsertion of a plug with a pin, the pin may be relocated from an inner circle to an outer area where it is fitted into a hole and engages the outer and inner caps so as to operate in an engaged fashion for opening and closing. The Milbourne teaching is more complicated than a push button type closure described above but may be accidently left in the engaged position so the child would readily be able to open the cap and bottle. Further, because the plug is removable, it may becmoe lost and therefore render the bottle unopenable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,292 issued on Sept. 1, 1987 to John Henning described a safety closure which includes an inner cap and an outer cap and various groves in which a lug is free to move and having various abutments so as to allow the user to create options as to locking and unlocking of the safety closure. While this teaching is more complicated and requires more significant manufacturing details than the closures described above, the use of the movement of the slider or lug is still within the skill of some children and may be rendered non-child-proof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,160,301 issued to B. K. Milbourne on Dec. 8, 1964 describes a container or bottle and safety cap which has attached to the outer cap a key which is inserted into a slot and, when this slot is aligned with a slot on the inner cap, the key locks the two caps into position for opening of the container. Otherwise, when the key is not engaged, the outer cap freely rotates about the inner cap and the container is childproof. However, it should be noted that the key is not difficult to operate nor would it be difficult for a child to figure out, and thus render the container non-child-proof.
While all the prior art described above creates various improvements in the art of safety closures, it should be noted that the simple pressure or push down type cap remains the predominant cap in the industry due to its oustanding safety record. While children may, with some intelligence, figure out various key and slider type closure arrangements, they simply do not have the strength to open the simple two cap system that requires substantial downward pressure. Thus, while the prior art is directed to locking and unlocking of closures for usage, they do not teach the present invention cap and container which involves permanently locking a pressure type childproof cap into a non-childproof configuration.